Kenworthy News Media, 15 July
2015
After having spent over a
year in prison awaiting trial for having shouted pro-democracy slogans,
pro-democracy leaders Mario Masuku and Maxwell Dlamini were
granted bail Tuesday (14 July 2015) in the small absolute monarchy of
Swaziland, writes Kenworthy News Media.
Masuku and Dlamini, both
high-ranking members of banned pro-democracy party the People’s United
Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), are charged under Swaziland’s Suppression of
Terrorism Act, an act that Amnesty International calls “inherently repressive”.
They have previously applied for bail twice without success.
Pressure led to release
Mounting pressure for
their release, combined with a crisis in the judiciary in Swaziland that has
led to the sacking of the Chief Justice and the Minister of Justice and the
subsequent release of two other pro-democracy advocates in June, may have paved
the way for Masuku and Dlamini having been granted bail.
An international campaign
for their release is supported by amongst others Amnesty International, the
ANC, the Swaziland United Democratic Front, the International Trade Union
Confederation as well as former anti-apartheid organisations ACTSA and Afrika
Kontakt from the UK and Denmark respectively.
The Danish embassy, the
UK Foreign Office and the Commenwealth have also raised the matter of Masuku
and Dlamini’s case and imprisonment with the Swazi government, as has the
former Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mogens Lykketoft, who will be the
next President of the UN General Assembly.
Suffered more than enough
According to Swazi trade
union leader Wonder Mkhonza, who knows both Masuku and Dlamini personally, they
have already suffered more than enough in prison. “No one deserves such
treatment”, he says.
Mario Masuku, who suffers
from diabetes, has been seriously ill during his prison spell, but has been
denied proper treatment. Maxwell Dlamini has previously been tortured by police
while detained, and was receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder
at the time of his arrest in 2014.
Both have had to sleep on
the floor in a small cell with as many as 35 other inmates.
Into the big prison
Although Masuku and
Dlamini have now been released on bail, they still face the challenge of what
Mario Masuku has called “the big prison that is Swaziland”.
These challenges include
debilitating bail payments and legal expenses, gruelling bail conditions and
continuous harassment of anyone who challenges the rule of absolute monarch
Mswati III.
See also
DEMOCRACY LEADERS FREED ON BAIL
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